ONE boy with Microcephaly, TWO typical siblings, THREE deep breaths...

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

A Christmas SURPRISE!

Last night I was reading over Max's weekly review sheet from school. It's always helpful to see what they've been working on so I can talk about those things with him here at home. Last week was brought to us by the color red, the number 17, the sign for "snow"....and working on A Christmas Surprise.

I asked Max about each these things, and he got so incredibly excited about the SURPRISE! that he nearly jumped right out of his socks. He kept exclaiming "PIES!" (his version of "SURPRISE!") while beaming from ear to ear and jumping around with glee.

We always joke that our secrets are safe with Max. And when he truly does have a secret, I never ask him to tell me what it is. (Partly because I don't think he would be able to tell me, but mostly because it just isn't fair to tempt him to spill the beans like that.)

But last night, I did.

We were talking back and forth about this fabulous SURPRISE! over and over and over...and finally I just asked, "What is it??"

He yelled, "CAKE!" and then promptly fell off the stool in all his excitement.

His delight was so pure and the novelty of having this SURPRISE! just wasn't wearing off, so I did what I always do at moments like this -- I pulled out the camera for some video footage.

I have no idea if the surprise really is cake (as he told me off camera), or if it is a mysterious Christmas-related item that sounds like "Kai-ooo!" (as he told his dad in the video), or if it is something altogether different.

But I can tell you this: I'm really eager to find out. His excitement is contagious!

*****Also, I wanted to point out that this video captures another one of Max's enduring (and endearing) quirks -- his confusion about using the pronouns "you" and "me." It's an oddly circular grammar rule and our attempts to correct his usage sometimes turn into little "Who's on first?" comedy routines.

Think about it -- how DO you teach that? Modeling doesn't work, because what WE say is always the opposite of what HE should say. My brother actually tried switching them once, saying "you" as he pointed to himself and then "me" as he pointed to Max...but then Max mimicked, just the way we always want him to, and the pronouns were still exactly opposite.

About My Son

Max has microcephaly. He is currently 8 years old and attends 2nd Grade in a Functional Skills classroom in the public school system. He is non-verbal and does some signing. He has mild SID, apraxia, chronic sleep issues, developmental and cognitive delays, AND is an extremely active, healthy, social, curious, loving, happy little boy. In other words, he's practically a genius.